Congr. Dana Rohrabacher speaks out against the Goodlatte Innovation bill in the Washington Times, including the text--Under the proposed bill, the pretrial discovery process — just one part of many dubious sections — tilts heavily…

Sharon Alfonsee on the storm after the storm,on problems with insurance claims after hurricane Sandy. George Hernemsr was a structural engineer, US Forensic provided another report. Steve Moston a Houston lawyer took Bob Cable's case. …

Charles Osgood introduced the stories for March 1, 2015, noting that spring was only 19 days away. Lee Cowan does the cover story on the Yellowstone winter keeper, Steve Fuller. Erin Moriarity on Anne Sinclair. Tracy Smith on Kelly…

IP Dragon

From now on, you can find new articles of IP Dragon on: ipdragon.org.So good bye to ipdragon.blogspot,com and hello ipdragon.org.All ipdragon.blogspot.com links will continue to be active, but will be redirected to ipdragon.orgAlso you…

Constructed Knowledge Works Like a Red Flag To An Internet Intermediary

Shades of Red by Skram1 see ColourloversThe real question: "What shade of red will attract liability?"After publishing a draft of the copyright law, the National Copyright Administration comes now with a A Brief Explanation…

Chinese Movie Posters Give You &quot;Double Vision&quot; Without The Alcohol

Clone and OriginalThe silver screen is known to bring out the imagination of people. However, China's film industry has not given birth to a poster child of creativity, eyeing laboriously to any movie that has some measure of success, Chinese…

Welcome to the IPKat's first "Never Too Late" feature of the month. We say goodbye to February with some sadness, since it has been this weblog's busiest month for site visits since its launch in 2003. February brought in 147,988…

Finding Stockholm wasn't so hard but, try asshe might, Gina couldn't locate that Brewery ...Forthcoming events. Some readers don't take the trouble to check out the IPKat's Forthcoming Events page since they assume that, with so many of the…

IPKat readers might remember that a few months ago I posted my Copyright Infringement Checklist, ie a list of the main aspects to consider when addressing potential infringement issues. I named it after myself not just because both cats…

Duets Blog

#TheDress phenomenon is about to shape the future of color trademarks and trade dress rights. You may recall, we have written a great deal on the subject of non-traditional trademark protection of colors, especially during the Christian…

Shoes are always in the news. From a fashion standpoint, Nike has made headlines this week, with a re-release of the Classic Cortez running shoe (aka, the Forrest Gump shoe) along with the second edition of the LeBronald Palmer. And…

Minnesota is known as the North Star State – L’Étoile du Nord. The state of hipsters, unique dining experiences, bitter cold winters, gorgeous summer nights, and fantastic craft brewers also has an impressive craft…

The American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) will be offering a webinar entitled "Professionalism, Privilege, and Duty of Candor before the USPTO" on March 18, 2015 from 12:30 - 2:15 pm (ET). William R. Covey, Director of Office…

EDVA Reverses FLANAX Case; No Exceptions to the Territoriality Principle

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in a case of first impression, held that Article 6bis of the Paris Convention, the famous marks provision, does not provide trademark rights that are protectable under Section…

Shameless Self-Promotion: Leason Ellis represented the successful party in a trial here in the SDNY/White Plain

A jury in the Southern District of New York (White Plains) awarded a complete victory to Triboro Quilt Manufacturing Corporation in its lawsuit against Luve LLC arising from an exclusive license agreement between the parties. Under the…

Apple-Samsung Lawsuit Raises Important Questions about Scope of Injunction

Guest Post by Professor Daryl Lim (John Marshall Law School) Apple and Samsung will once again lock horns at an appeals court. Apple is seeking a permanent sales ban on patented features contained in Samsung’s Galaxy S3 smartphone and…

by Dennis Crouch USPTO management has announced the cancellation of its Sensitive Application Warning System (SAWS). Writing in an internal email, Commissioner Focarino indicated that “the USPTO has decided to retire…

by Dennis Crouch David Couture v. Playdom (Fed. Cir. 2015) In what may become an important trademark decision, the Federal Circuit has ruled that trademark registration requires actual use in commerce. 15 U.S.C. 1051. For goods,…

Erik J. Heels

17 Seconds gives you useful info quickly. All modern patent law is a derivative of the Venetian Patent Act of 1474, which was designed to encourage “men of great genius” (and, unfortunately, they did mean men) to come to Venice.…

Because history. Dear Intertubes: I’ve been on Twitter for a long time (since 2008, not 2010, which (thanks to a Twitter bug) is what my account indicates). I initially used Twitter a lot, then less, the deleted lots of Tweets, then…

17 Seconds gives you useful info quickly. If you think about a trademark as a “mark” of a “trade,” then it makes more sense. Consider the origins of branding. Farmers needed a way to identify their cows from their…

On July 25, 2014 Valeo North America, Inc. of Troy, Michigan and Delmex de Juarez S. de R.L. de C.V. of Mexico (collectively, “Valeo”) filed a complaint requesting that the ITC commence an investigation pursuant to Section…

On July 25, 2014, Bose Corp. of Framingham, Massachusetts (“Bose”) filed a complaint requesting that the ITC commence an investigation pursuant to Section 337. The complaint alleges that Beats Electronics, LLC of Culver City,…

Best of 2005: Power Line: Mary Mapes is a Year Late, and Way Short on Logic

First posted on September 30, 2005. The Powerline blog, appropriately, undertakes the definitive (if only preliminary) deconstruction and rebuttal of journalistic fraud Mary Mapes’s new revisionist history on the topic of last…

First posted on February 4, 2011. Or, perhaps, the companies that hire them. Let’s see if we can find all seven in this highly effective – certainly highly earnest! — item from Mark Malek at the Tactical IP…

Business, Entertainment, Sports & Technology (B.E.S.T.) Law Blog

Podcast: Tribute Bands This month on the Business Entertainment Sports and Technology Law Podcast, we pay tribute to those who pay tribute…to their favorite bands. Join ARC Law Group partner Mark A. Pearson and attorney Ben Shaw as…

Podcast: CLA Music Business Seminar 2014 This month on the Business Entertainment Sports and Technology Law Podcast, we get you ready for the upcoming California Lawyers for the Arts Music Business Seminar. Join ARC Law Group partner Mark…

Freedom to Tinker

Focuses on issues related to legal regulation of technology, and especially on legal attempts to restrict the right of technologists and citizens to tinker with technological devices. From Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy.

The conventional wisdom about last night’s Super Bowl is that the Seahawks made a game-losing mistake by running a passing play from the Patriots’ one yard line in the closing seconds. Some are calling it the worst Super Bowl play…

As promised, here are the final project presentations from the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency technologies class I taught at Princeton. I encouraged students to build something real, rather than toy class projects, and they delivered. I hope…

Freedom to Tinker readers are probably aware of the current controversy over Google’s handling of ongoing security vulnerabilities in its Android WebView component. What sounds at first like a routine security problem turns out to have…

USEI v. TI, 6:11cv491 (2/19/15) Judge: Michael Schneider Holding: Motion for Application of Collateral Estoppel Granted Sometimes a verdict doesn't even get to the appellate stage before it is reversed. In 2009, the plaintiff in this case…

I was privileged to participate in the 12th annual Dr. Kenneth Street Law Symposium at Austin College in Sherman last Friday, which was themed as "Emerging Trends in the Federal Courts." The symposium began with a luncheon address by Fifth...

IPWatchdog.com | Patent Copyright Trademark

The USPTO has put SAWS to rest, literally. The USPTO has posted a message on the agency's website explaining that after conducting an internal review of the SAWS program the agency has ''decided to retire this program.'' Furthermore, the…

I will be criss-crossing the country again in March 2015, with stops in Washington, DC, Chicago, Michigan, and San Fransisco. What follows is my schedule for the month. If you are in the area come out to say hello.

America Must be the Leader in Patenting Innovations, Including Software

I do feel that the whole notion of trying to find an “inventive concept” is really challenged. While the Supreme Court went out of its way to say we are really not putting Sections 102 or 103 in here, I think what’s…

JOTWELL - The Journal of Things We Like (Lots)

Edited by University of Miami School of Law Professor Michael Froomkin, The Journal of Things We Like (Lots)–JOTWELL–invites law professors to join us in filling a telling gap in legal scholarship by creating a space where legal academics will go to identify, celebrate, and discuss the best new legal scholarship.

Gavin Wright, Sharing the Prize: The Economics of the Civil Rights Revolution in the American South (2013).Christopher SchmidtQuantitative scholars too often seem intent on sucking the complexities and nuances out of history. Sometimes,…

Daniel Klerman & Greg Reilly, Forum Selling, USC Center for Law and Social Science Research Papers Series No. CLASS14-35, available at SSRN.Allan ErbsenScholars have extensively explored how outcomes in civil litigation can hinge on an…

PTAB finds Examiner's interpretation of "lamp assembly" unreasonable when read on a bumper surrounding a headlight

Takeaway: The Applicant appealed an anticipation rejection of claims to an auto light assembly with a charging port. The reference disclosed a vehicle with a charging port and a headlight, both located in the front fascia / bumper. The…

PTAB not persuaded that reference disclosing non-elected species is improper

Takeaway: In appealing an obviousness rejection, the Applicant attacked the availability of a reference on the grounds that this contradicted an Election of Species requirement. More specifically, the Applicant argued that since the Applicant…

PTAB picks broadest definition of "secured" among those offered by Examiner and Applicant

Takeaway: In an ex parte reexamination of a patent on a rolling tool cabinet, both the Applicant and the Examiner made extensive use of dictionary definitions to interpret the claim term "secured." The Applicant asserted the prior art…

In Capitol Records v. MP3Tunes, the Judge has denied individual defendant Michael Robertson's motion for a new trial, but reduced the punitive damages award on the state law claims for pre-1972 recordings. September 29, 2014, Decision,…

2nd Circuit OK's scanning whole books for research as fair use in Authors Guild v HathiTrust

In Authors Guild v. HathiTrust, the US Court of Appeals has ruled that scanning whole books for research purposes is fair use. In HathiTrust, a group of universities took digital scans prepared by Google and stored them in a "digital…

Seattle Trademark Lawyer

Before a trademark can be registered, it has to be used.
There’s one exception to that — if a mark is registered in a foreign country, it can be registered in the States without having been used here. But even then, the…

No question, the PTO got it right.
The PTO’s administrative law branch, the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, finally decided the REDSKINS trademark is too offensive to continue to justify the expanded rights that stem from…

During Washington’s last legislative session, Olympia considered taxing marijuana trademarks.
It’s a bad idea.
But first, a little background on the bill.
If passed, House Bill 1976, would have levied a “tax of three…

Every year the NFL’s trademark attorneys aggressively send cease and desist letters to business using the term “Super Bowl,” threatening them with the trademark law equivalent of traumatic brain injury. Even churches are not granted…

This is not your ordinary trademark infringement case. It involves Grammy Awards ceremony tickets, allegedly sold by now ex-Recording Academy member and trademark attorney – Matthew Blakely – to alleged swindler and trademark infringer…

Sam Smith To Pay Tom Petty Copyright Royalties For &quot;Stay With Me&quot; Song

Sam Smith's hit song "Stay With Me" was reportedly the subject of a copyright dispute with Tom Petty claiming that it infringed his "I Won't Back Down" hit song. Here's a third party's analysis and comparison of the two…

The Invent Blog

Via this USPTO webpage: The USPTO will be hosting seven half-day roadshows across the country during September-October 2014 to increase the understanding of the First Inventor to File (FITF) provisions of the America Invents Act (AIA). In…

Here are some helpful posts for patent and trademark practitioners on the use of Adobe Acrobat: Acrobat for Legal Professionals Blog (ALPB) on Converting Color PDFs to Greyscale or Black and White. ALPB on Converting Color PDF to Greyscale…

It used to be that almost every intellectual property attorney would personally have a printed copy of all of the U.S. patent, trademark and copyright statutes sitting on their desk. Every year, a new edition would be bought to replace the…

So it seems the gun world is up in arms (that’s right, I went there) about the fact that the Spearmint Rhino chain of strip clubs has sued gun manufacturer Chiappa Firearms for using a confusingly similar mark on its RHINO 40DS model .357…

21 Things About Trademarks That Every Business and Marketing Person Should Know

There’s an old comedy bit where the comic offers to teach you “everything you’re going to remember from college, ten years after graduation.” The crash course is offered at a hefty price, but much less than four years of actual…

Library/Twitter HandleAppalachian School of Law Library @ASL_LibraryCleveland-Marshall Law Library @CMLawLibraryGeorge Mason Law Library @GMULawLibraryGeorgetown Law Library @GtownLawLibGeorgia State University Law Library…

This Thursday! Looting and the Plunder of Cultural Heritage at the National Arts Club - NYC

Girl With Black Hair (Egon Schiele 1911) - Stolen From Fritz Grunbaum, Now at Oberlin CollegeThanks to the Archaeology Committee of the National Arts Club, I will be speaking at this wonderful event on Thursday with two esteemed colleagues, I…

Washington, D.C. - The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a royalty award in Gaylord v. United States for copyright infringement committed by the United States Postal Service.
Frank Gaylord, a World War II…

Portland, Oregon - Copyright attorneys for Jacobus Rentmeester of Westhampton Beach, New York sued for copyright infringement in the District Court of Oregon, Portland Division alleging that Nike, Inc. of Beaverton, Oregon infringed…

Indianapolis, Indiana - The Center for Intellectual Property Law and Innovation of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law will be hosting its Annual BioPharma/Tech Law Symposium on Thursday, March 12, 2015. CLE credit…

A rare permanently installed art project by Michael Asher has been destroyed. San Diego 6 and Hyperallergic have more on this story. I’d like to add that although the obvious question here is whether this project gets restored and how,…

Against three graffiti artists. This one’s a bit more interesting because now the artists are adding copyright’s brother, The Lanham Act, to the usual copyright claim. The California judge presiding over this dispute has…

Ruling Imagination: Law and Creativity

Pants, which were heavily featured in the fall runway shows by such designers as Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, are making their way down to the moderate market, emerging as one of the season’s hot fashion categories.
Moderate-price…

Choose A San Diego SEO Company And Get A Fully Customized Digital Marketing Plan

San Diego SEO Companies have created numerous campaigns with search engine marketing and internet marketing for many companies located in the San Diego county area. With the use of search engine optimization, online business owners are…

Background
There are still a number of corporations which have not fully recovered from the economic downturn, which consequently leads to less tax revenue for tax authorities. As such, some of the tax authorities around the…

This article was published March 2, 2015 by Industry Today. The origin of disputes is friction: “the resistance encountered when one body is moved in contact with another.” Unless taken in hand there is a sure progression from…

Initially, in the far distant past, in the mid-1990s, domain names were seen primarily as addresses in cyberspace — much like telephone numbers or postal addresses to which they were analogized — rather than as assets of value in…

Co-Author Gerald M. Levine Copyright adheres to creative works when they are fixed in tangible mediums of expression for the first time. At the moment of fixation authors own and control their works in every respect, but this is likely to…

Andrew Berger is moderating a panel discussion at the Litigation Counsel of America‘s 2015 Spring Conference. The title of the program is Avoiding the Googling Mistrial: Dos and Don’ts When Preparing for Trial in the Age…

Andrew Berger is moderating a panel discussion at the Litigation Counsel of America‘s 2015 Spring Conference. The title of the program is Avoiding the Googling Mistrial: Dos and Don’ts When Preparing for Trial in the Age of Social…

H. Dickson Burton from TraskBritt in Salt Lake City gave a presentation explaining how to obtain a preliminary injunction in a patent case. Here is a summary of his presentation with links to some of the cases he mentioned.

ReRAM (Resistance RAM) is a type of memory which may one day replace Flash as the common form of non-volatile storage for electronic devices. I recently updated a file I keep on US patents related to ReRAM and some related non-volatile…

The following is a list of the most interesting nanotechnology patents this past year (in my opinion):#10 - US 8093786 - Nanoscale piezoelectrics (Stevens Institute of Technology)This patent teaches manufacturing piezoelectric nanofibers…

The Trademark Reporter has published its Annual Review of U.S. Trademark Cases: "The Sixty-Seventh Year of Administration of the Lanham Act of 1946," by Theodore H. Davis, Jr. and yours truly, John L. Welch. (download pdf here). Ted Davis…

Relying on two third-party patent applications, the Board affirmed a refusal of the mark shown below, based upon applicant's failure to disclaim the word "RAIL," for "surgical implants made of artificial materials used in spinal surgery,…

1566 The Wedding Dance by Pieter Brueghel the Elder(Music at weddings in Canada is subject to Copyright Board tariffs, which are doubled when there is dancing) On February 4, 2015 the Copyright Board released by email distribution to…

Teksavvy is asking for $346,480.68 for its “reasonable costs” from Voltage Picture

I attended on Monday December 8, 2014 as a spectator at the hearing at the Federal Court in the Voltage Pictures v. John Doe and Jane Doe matter presided over by Mme Prothonotary Aronovitch concerning Teksavvy’s motion to be reimbursed…

(mccarthy.ca)I occasionally do book reviews when I come across or am given a review copy of something that is useful, interesting and makes a positive contribution to the IP literature – either in an academic or practical way, or…

Dear Rich: Nolo's Patent, Copyright & Trademark Blog

Dear Rich: I'm self-publishing my novel and I'm trying to track down Circle Films for permission to use four lines from "Raising Arizona." (I did get permission from the Cather Foundation to quote "My Antonia.") The problem is, I can't…

Dear Rich: I work for a fully online private school and am seeking permission to use images, videos, and links within the course. Do I need to have a formal contract with a signature confirming that permission is granted to use the item, or…

Dear Rich: Night of the Living Dead (the original film by George A Romero) is in the public domain. However someone trademarked Night of the Living Dead for action figures (all the information is below). If I wanted to manufacture action…

Which Was Dumber&ndash;Trash-Talking Tweeting, Or The Decision To Prosecute For It?

Robert Metzinger made the following four tweets during the 2013 World Series in St. Louis: Going to be tailgating with a #PressureCooker during games 3-4-5 in #STL during #WorldSeries. #STLStrong #GoCards #postseason from Springfield, MO.…

Earlier this month, we celebrated the blog’s 10 year anniversary. In preparation for the anniversary, my RA Addam suggested making a video to help celebrate. After all, we don’t normally generate video content, so I thought it…

The &ldquo;Browsewrap&rdquo;/&rdquo;Clickwrap&rdquo; Distinction Is Falling Apart

It is somewhat surprising that, in 2015, courts are still hashing out online consumer contract formation issues. After all, the seminal case, Specht v. Netscape, was decided over a dozen years ago. Yet, a few recent cases show that…

Patent Prospector

Helferich licensed relevant portions of its patent portfolio to mobile
handset manufacturers. Then it turned around and sued content providers that
feed users through their handsets. In a whitewash ruling, Judge John W. Darrah
of Illinois…

The CAFC has long internally fretted about its self-indulgence of de novo
review in claim construction, which is a legal interpretation of technical
facts. In Teva v. Sandoz, the Supreme Court settled that score.
When reviewing a district…

In Bard v. Gore (CAFC
2014-1114), the CAFC abandons all pretense of equitable rule of law by
ignoring its own precedents and exercising biased caprice. In dissent, Judge
Newman sharply points this out.
This case returns to the Federal…

Lenz Blog

I just finished reading the first couple of chapters of a new book by Jeremy Leggett released today. I recall having reviewed (favorably) his 2013 book “The Energy of Nations” on this blog. The title of this book is “The…

According to SPIEGEL (in German), the German government has sued the EU Commission over their decision to treat the German feed-in tariff as “State aid”, with the consequence of requiring approval by the EU Commission for all…

As Spiegel and many others report, the German Wind Energy Association BWE has announced figures for 2014. They are a new record 4.75 GW, breaking the 12 year old record of 2002 (3.2 GW). That sounds like good news, and it is. The bad news is…

Hosts: Denise Howell, Sarah Pearson
Drone's role in journalism, Katy Perry's Left Shark, Emoji in the courtroom and more!
Guests: Nabiha Syed, and Peter DiCola
Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/twil.
Public list of…

On February 26, 2015, the Congress will hold two separate hearings relating to the functions and funding of the U.S. Copyright Office. Both hearings will begin at 1:30 pm and will be streamed through the respective Committee websites. The…

Take Action-Remind The 114th Congress That Copyright Is Vital to Creative

From the Copyright Alliance: As the new Congress convenes in D.C. and takes up important copyright issues, please sign this letter reminding Congress of the vital role that copyright, free expression, creativity and innovation continue to…

The Register of Copyrights has released a report from the Special Projects Team responsible for studying technology issues and business improvements related to the Copyright Office’s services. The report was delivered to the Register by…